Wednesday, September 22, 2004

WebRelease 1.1 tools on the web today (including EXBPA and others)

 

Today we see the release of the "Web Release 1.1" tool downloads at: http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/downloads/2003.asp

There are a bunch of great new tools and updates to existing tools.  The big release today, of course, is the Exchange "Best Practices Analyzer" tool which can be used to scan your Exchange organization for a bunch of different known-problems and best practice suggestions. The "All Tools" package has also been updated.

Here's the list of changes and brief explanations:

Tool Display Name: ExBPA 

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=DBAB201F-4BEE-4943-AC22-E2DDBD258DF3

 

Short Description
ExBPA is a tool that allows for getting a snapshot of an Exchange deployment and storing the data in an XML file for further study and analysis. Read JonAv's post about the ExBPA release over at the Exchange Team blog.

 

WR11 New/Update
New 

 

 

Tool Display Name: Jetstress 2004

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=94B9810B-670E-433A-B5EF-B47054595E9C&displaylang=en  

 

Short Description
Jetstress helps to evaluate the hardware storage by simulating the Exchange disk input/output (I/O) load. Specifically, Jetstress simulates the Exchange database and log file loads produced by a specified number of users.

Jetstress enables you to do two types of tests: the Jetstress Disk Performance Test and the Jetstress Disk Subsystem Stress Test. The Disk Performance Test runs for two hours and enables you to verify the performance and sizing of your storage solution. The Disk Subsystem Stress Test runs for 24 hours and enables you to test the server storage reliability over a longer time. Running both tests is the best way to verify the integrity and performance of your disk subsystem.

 

WR11 New/Update
New

 

Usage / Documentation
Launch JetStressUI.exe, select the tests to run, fill in the user profile information and the database and log drives path. Start running the test, and once the test is completed, the result will be displayed in the html format.

 

 

Tool Display Name: MSSearch Admin

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=46FD5644-BD0D-4CFA-95F8-64BA34BDE6A7&displaylang=en

 

Short Description
MSSearch Admin determines which Exchange Stores in the domain have Full-Text Indexes, provides status on indexes and supports administration via command line.

 

WR11 New/Update
New

 

Usage / Documentation
Command line VBS script with several options documented in the accompanying documentation.  Output is directed to an XML file if the Output option is used.  Output goes to the screen if no output file named.

 

  

Tool Display Name: SmtpDiag

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=BC1881C7-925D-4A29-BD42-71E8563C80A9&displaylang=en

 

Short Description
SmtpDiag is a troubleshooting tool designed to work directly on a Windows server with IIS/SMTP service enabled or with Exchange Server installed. It utilizes the same APIs as Windows and Exchange in order to diagnose configuration and connection issues involving SMTP and DNS. 

 

WR11 New/Update
New

 

Usage / Documentation
SMTPDIAG from rcpt [-d external dns] [/v] [/?]

 

from address  
Address of local mail box. Used for verifying "mail from" as well as checking inbound DNS.

 

rcpt address
Email Address of remote mail box you are attempting to send mail to.  Used to verify DNS as well as remote mail box availability.

 

-d external dns       
IP address of External DNS server used by Exchange to determine remote MX records.  This is not an option for IIS SMTP.

 

/?
Displays Help

 

  

Tool Display Name: Auto Accept Agent

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=3D0884E6-C603-491D-BF57-ACF03E046BFE&displaylang=en

 

Short Description

A store event sink that automatically processes meeting requests for resource mailboxes. The agent checks the availability of the resource mailbox based on the resource’s schedule (not free/busy), and accepts or declines new or updated meeting requests.

 

WR11 New/Update

Update

 

What’s Different?

  • Allows users to customize a response message
  • The "Events" perfmon counter was being counted once as the incoming item arrives, and again when we do a save before moving off to the Delete Items folder.
  • Addition of performance counter to help them monitor how long the agent is taking to process requests.
  • Optionally hide Response Type and Agent Version from responses
  • If domain name is missing from credentials provided during setup, use current user's domain.

 

Usage / Documentation

See deployment guide at: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=27921

  

  

Tool Display Name: Exchange Server Stress and Performance 2003

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=773AE7FD-860F-4755-B04D-1972E38FA4DB&displaylang=en

 

Short Description

Simulates large numbers of client sessions in a test environment, in order to test server performance. Includes modules that are used to simulate several protocols and loads. 

 

WR11 New/Update

Update

 

What’s Different

Fixed Crash in ESP.exe 6.5.7226.0 during combined DAV, IMAP, and SMTP module load. Crash occurred after about 4 days of activity without other errors.

 

Usage / Documentation

No changes

 

 

Tool Display Name: Load Simulator 2003

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=92EB2EDC-3433-47CA-A5F8-0483C7DDEA85&displaylang=en

 

Short Description

Simulates the performance load of MAPI clients, thereby enabling testing of how a server that is running Exchange Server 2003 responds to e-mail loads.

 

WR11 New/Update

Update

 

What’s Different

  • Documentation change to add the remote control feature and the command line interface.  
  • Loadsim didn’t report delivery time properly to lsperf.log. Previous version was miscalculating the time it took to deliver a message -- this only affected the output of lslog.exe.  Introduces new warning that will appear in the loadsim window, Invalid DeliveryTime (%d hours)” - Message was inserted by Initialization routine and will not be included in log file.  This warning will fire whenever Loadsim reads an ‘initialization’ message, of which there are about 1000/user.

 

Usage / Documentation

No changes

 

 

Tool Display Name: Badmail Deletion and Archiving

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=782AAF0F-6239-40AD-ADDA-97863D852FF7&displaylang=en  

 

Short Description
Automatically deletes or archives files in the badmail directory of specified SMTP virtual servers. Ensures that the size of the badmail directory does not exceed specific size limits and eliminates the administrative overhead of manually archiving or deleting these files.

 

WR11 New/Update
Update (documentation only)

 

What’s Different
Documentation of usage changed from showing running the tool from “C:\bamailadmin.wsf” to “C:\Windows\System32\Cscript.exe c:\badmailadmin.wsf”

 

Usage / Documentation
No Change

 

 

Tool Display Name: Domain Rename Fixup (XDR-Fixup)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=24B47D4A-C4B9-4031-B491-29839148A28C&displaylang=en

 

Short Description
Fixes Exchange attributes in Active Directory after using the Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003 domain rename tool.

 

WR11 New/Update
Update (documentation only)

 

What’s Different
Documentation change to say that domain rename with multiple routing groups and exchange server(s) with static dns name requires SMTPSVC and RESVC to be restarted on all servers that use the former as bridge-heads

 

Usage / Documentation
No Changes

 

 

Tool Display Name: Exchange Profile Update

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=56F45AC3-448F-4CCC-9BD5-B6B52C13B29C&displaylang=en  

 

Short Description
Updates Outlook profiles after moving mailboxes across Exchange organizations or administrative groups.

 

WR11 New/Update
Update (documentation only)

 

What’s Different
Documentation changed to reflect that the Exchange Profile Update tool is supported when run on the following operating systems and applications:

  • Windows 2000 (all editions)
  • Windows XP (all editions)
  • Windows 2003 (all editions)
  • Outlook 98 to Outlook 2003 

 

Tool Display Name: Importer for Lotus cc:Mail Archives

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=460FD995-588C-4F50-8A19-BD77EEC868A6&displaylang=en  

 

Short Description
Imports cc:Mail archive files to folders in an Exchange Server 2003 mailbox store or to one or more personal folder (.pst) files.

 

WR11 New/Update
Update (documentation only)

 

What’s Different
Removed several references to Exchange 2000 from CCMA Help files.

 

 

Tool Display Name: Inter-Organization Replication

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=E7A951D7-1559-4F8F-B400-488B0C52430E&displaylang=en  

 

Short Description
Replicates public folder and free/busy information between Exchange organizations.

 

WR11 New/Update
Update (documentation only)

 

What’s Different

Added ini settings to documentation.

 

 

Tool Display Name: Mailbox Merge Wizard (ExMerge)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=429163EC-DCDF-47DC-96DA-1C12D67327D5&displaylang=en  

 

Short Description
Extracts data from mailboxes on one server running Exchange and merges that data into mailboxes on another server that is running Exchange.

 

WR11 New/Update
Update (documentation only)

 

What’s Different
Documented that Exmerge fails if the source mailbox is a Recovery Database and you're in a cross-forest scenario.

 

 

Tool Display Name: Application Analyzer 2003 for Lotus Notes Data Collector 

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B6F78D8E-184F-49C4-BB1F-EE9A82B0893B&displaylang=en

 

Short Description
Learn about your Lotus Notes applications with this non-invasive analysis tool. This updated version supports currently available Microsoft product offerings as recommended targets (e.g. Microsoft® Office SharePoint ™ Portal Server 2003 and Microsoft® Office InfoPath(TM) 2003) and Lotus Notes releases up to and including version 6. The tool has two modules:

 

Data Collector.
Use this module to compile raw data about your Lotus Notes applications and to view an executive summary report. The Data Collector does not collect any actual data from within the databases or modify the data or databases in any way. It collects usage and structure information only. This collected information can be used by a Microsoft Certified Partner or Microsoft Consulting Services with the Data Processor to generate in-depth reports about your Notes applications and to help you develop a migration strategy.

 

Data Processor.
This separate module is only available as a service offering from either a Microsoft Certified Partner or through Microsoft Services.

 

WR11 New/Update

Update

 

What’s Different
Updated release to address globalization issues in displaying graphs in the Japanese version of the tool


[Evan's WebLog]

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